Trump Pushes Hamas Disarmament, Ukraine Peace Talks, A Year Of DOGE

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1:10Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media while you listen. Join us at plus.npr.org. Israel's prime minister met with President Trump again. Trump brushed off Israeli attacks in Gaza and demanded that Hamas disarm. If they don't disarm, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then they'll be held to pay. So does the peace plan finally move out of phase one? I'm Michelle Martin with Leila Fado, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Kremlin says Ukraine tried to hit one of Vladimir Putin's homes, but Ukraine's president said the accusation is a lie to kill peace talks and continue Russia's war.

1:50Will it undermine already flailing negotiations to end the violence? President Trump and Elon Musk promised to save a trillion dollars in federal spending. They didn't, and now Doge has disbanded. We look back at Doge and how the effort to lay off workers continues. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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3:25Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Mar-a-Lago on Monday with President Trump. Their sixth meeting since Trump returned to office this year. The two men discussed how to move Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan into the next phase and sent a stern warning to Iran to not attempt to rebuild its nuclear or missile capacity. NPR's Michelle Kellerman has been following all this from Jerusalem and joins me now. Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Leila. So, Michelle, there had been a lot of speculation that the two men could be at odds over moving on to phase two of the Gaza ceasefire plan. Critics accused Netanyahu and his government of dragging their feet on that.

4:01Was there any friction that we could see in the meeting? Well, it was quite the opposite in public, at least. You know, the two men were really praising each other. Netanyahu said that Trump is getting the Israel prize, which is usually only given to Israelis. And Trump said that Israel probably wouldn't still exist if it hadn't been for Netanyahu's wartime leadership. He again said that he thinks that Netanyahu should be pardoned rather than face a corruption trial. And the other thing the two men agreed on was the need for Hamas to give up its power and weapons in Gaza. Here's Trump. If they don't disarm, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then they'll be held to pay for them.

4:41And we don't want that. We're not looking for that. but they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time. And then on the other hand, Trump said that he's not concerned at all about the frequent Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect more than two months ago. He said that Israel has lived up to the plan, quote, 100 percent. Now, a ceasefire in which hundreds of people have been killed and it's still in phase one. I mean, is there any progress on that next step of this Trump plan? Well, Trump still has not appointed his board of peace or said who's going to run Gaza.

5:17It's also not clear when an international force is going to be in place. You know, he even suggested that such a force could disarm Hamas, though countries that are thinking about sending troops have very different views on that. So here's where things are stuck. I mean, Hamas shows no signs of giving up power or weapons without negotiations on a Palestinian state. Israel shows no interest in pulling back in Gaza or getting on a path toward a Palestinian state. And inside Gaza, Leila, things are really pretty dire still. It's been rainy and cold here, and we're hearing reports of children dying because of the cold weather and floods.

5:56And much of Gaza remains in ruins. The two leaders seem to be in broad agreement on another issue, Iran. What did they say about that? Yeah, I mean, remember, Trump joined Israel's brief war with Iran last summer, sending B-2 bombers, which he said obliterated Iran's nuclear program. But Israel says that Iran is now building up its ballistic missile stockpile, and it's worried about that. When Trump was asked about that, he said, if we're going to have to go knock them down again, we're going to do it. But he also said he's open to a deal with Iran. So it was a bit of a confusing message. What Israeli analysts say they heard in Trump's comments was that if Iran reconstitutes its nuclear program, the U.S.

6:38is going to act and that he's giving Israel a green light to take action against Iran's ballistic missile program. At least that's how people here in Israel are interpreting the president's comments on Iran. So was there anything they didn't agree on? Well, there are definitely tensions over Syria and Turkey, but Trump kept saying that he thinks everything will work out because he has good relations with all those leaders. He also said he didn't agree with Netanyahu 100 % on the West Bank. Some far-right ministers in Netanyahu's government want to annex the West Bank, something Trump has said he opposes, but he didn't really air his grievances about that in public.

7:18He said he thinks that Netanyahu will make the right decisions on the West Bank. That's NPR's Michelle Kellerman in Jerusalem. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you.

7:36Russia is threatening to harden its position in negotiations to end its war on Ukraine. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of an attempted drone attack on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's residences. Ukraine says Russia is fabricating the incident so it can continue waging war. Joining us now is NPR's Ukraine correspondent Joanna Keksis, who is in Kiev. Good morning, Joanna. Good morning, Leila. So let's start with this alleged attack on one of Putin's homes. What happened? So Leila, Russia's longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, brought it up yesterday in an interview with Interfax, Russia's state-owned news agency, and he claimed without evidence that Ukraine had launched 91 drones at a Putin residence in Novgorod in the northwest, and that Russia's air defense had shot down these drones.

8:21Now, we should say Lavrov is not trusted by Western leaders, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately denied Lavrov's charge and said Russia was inventing this incident to undermine peace talks and expand attacks on Ukraine. Here's Zelenskyy speaking to reporters.

8:41He's saying, I'm sure the Russians are preparing to launch strikes here, probably on the Capitol and probably on our government buildings. Everyone must be on alert now. Now, Zelensky was in Florida this weekend for talks with President Trump. How has Trump responded to this charge? Well, President Trump said Putin told him about the alleged attack on Monday and that Trump was, quote, very angry about it, although he also acknowledged that no one had independently confirmed it. Now, speaking to reporters, Trump also seemed to suggest that he stopped sales of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to prevent such strikes.

9:15Now, back in 2023, let me bring up, Russia did accuse Ukraine of trying to attack the Kremlin with two drone strikes. And Ukraine also denied this. Russia, though, has hit Ukrainian government buildings. Didn't Trump say that Putin told him he wants peace? Yes, Trump did say this during his press conference in Mar-a-Lago with Zelensky. Trump also said Putin wants to help Ukraine. But Zelensky said later Putin is not sincere about peace.

9:44Zelensky is saying Putin tells the president of the United States that he wants to end the war, but then he tells the media that he is ready to continue the war, striking Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles. And I should add, Putin has ordered his generals to capture the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. And Russia is also still demanding that Ukraine cede the 25 percent of the eastern Donbass region that the Ukrainians still control. Okay, if peace talks move forward, what are the next steps? Well, you know, the Ukrainians are organizing meetings with U.S. and European representatives to work further on this peace plan.

10:19And if Russia rejects it, the Ukrainians want to keep their allies engaged, especially the Trump administration. Zelensky says he and Trump want to end this war through diplomacy.

10:34So Zelensky is saying, and if this war does drag on, the Americans will continue to help Ukraine along with the Europeans because, he said, we are defending ourselves. We are not the aggressors. That's NPR's Joanna Kakisis in Kyiv. Thank you, Joanna. You're welcome.

10:56The Department of Government Efficiency effort was one of the most consequential changes the Trump administration made to the federal government in 2025. Many of Doge's promises to increase efficiency and slash spending never fully materialized, but the Trump administration has not given up on those goals. NPR's Stephen Fowler is part of a team of reporters tracking all things government restructuring and joins us now for a look back at the year in Doge. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, so it's been months since the high-profile departure of Elon Musk as the leader of this Doge effort. I guess the first question is, does Doge still exist?

11:35Yes and no. When Musk left at the end of May, so did a lot of attention on Doge's work. But the people who joined federal agencies to do things like fire federal workers, cancel contracts, and cut spending just became official ingrained parts of those agencies. Think of it this way. Doge is a mindset that started first as an outside group, but quickly manifested itself as an official policy and way of doing things. For what it's worth, Musk did speak on the Katie Miller podcast earlier this month, and he said he wouldn't do Doge again if given the chance and offered a mixed review. We're a little bit successful.

12:12We were somewhat successful. I mean, we stopped a lot of funding. That really just made no sense. Okay, he doesn't sound so convinced there. Let's talk about what he called somewhat successful. Amidst those cuts, Doge claimed it would save over a trillion dollars in federal spending. How much progress actually happened on that front? Not very much. In fact, if you look at the start of the new fiscal year in October through the end of November, the government has spent a half trillion dollars more than it brought in. That's because more than 90 % of federal spending goes towards popular entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, plus spending on defense and interest payments on more than$38 trillion in debt.

12:56Doge didn't touch those programs. Congress would have to be the ones to take action, and this year they did. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act saw tax cuts and new spending on President Trump's priorities. It's actually expected to increase the federal deficit by at least$3 trillion additional dollars over the next decade. Okay, kind of the opposite of the goal. Another signature Doge push was to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce. Where does that stand? So, Layla, usually we expect to see between 100 ,000 to 150 ,000 federal employees retire, resign, or otherwise leave the government each year.

13:35That's estimated to be double for 2025, more than 317 ,000 people gone. There are federal agencies and programs like the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and much of the Education Department that have been effectively eliminated. But we have also reported that some of the Doge cuts were being undone with agencies hiring back hundreds of workers in recent weeks. Okay, so it sounds like you're saying Doge itself wasn't the most successful, but that mentality has become administration policy. What does that look like moving forward? Well, the Trump administration is still trying to lay off federal workers and cut spending from policies Trump disagrees with.

14:17It just looks different from how Doge did it. The thing I am watching is what continues to happen with this unprecedented data access Doge was given, sensitive personal data on millions of Americans, and how they keep using it, like for immigration enforcement purposes. That's NPR's Stephen Fowler. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you.

14:41And that's Up First for Tuesday, December 30th. I'm Leila Fodid. And I'm Michelle Martin. Up First gets you caught up and Morning Edition takes you deeper. We're live every morning on your local NPR station with reporting, interviews, and the context behind the headlines. And if you want to listen in the afternoon, you can do that too. Download the NPR app where you can find all of NPR's most popular shows and listen anytime. Today's episode of Upverse was edited by Ruth Sherlock, Anna Yukonanoff, Mohamed Elbradisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

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